What do the New RingCentral Google Integrations Mean for G Suite Admins?

Leading Comms company "RingCentral" has long been recognized for their commitment to deliver exceptional unified communications on an enterprise level, especially to Google Cloud customers. In an attempt to make communication and collaboration simpler for the modern, mobile workforce, RingCentral have recently introduced new integrations with G-Suite, strengthening their integration portfolio with time-saving features to boost productivity, and streamline teamwork.

Through RingCentral for Google users can already make and receive calls, SMS messages and now MMS messages from any device, using their business identity. What's more, users can log into their RingCentral accounts using associated GSuite account. Now, the new integrations will make it even easier for Google Apps Admins to access and enjoy RingCentral features within G-Suite.

G Suite Admin Provisioning for Ringcentral Accounts

The first new integrated feature supported by RingCentral for G-Suite is "auto-provisioning". When auto-provisioning is enabled for third-party applications, users created, deleted, or modified in G-Suite are automatically updated in that third-party application as well. This is a highly popular feature among admins, because it reduces the overhead issues associated with managing users across various third-party applications.

Auto User Provisioning basically simplifies the onboarding process, to make it easier for IT administrators to effectively create, and delete users as necessary through RingCentral Office. G-Suite customers across three pricing platforms (Business, Education, and Enterprise), can enable auto-provisioning solutions for each of the eight supported applications. Additionally, Government, Basic, and Nonprofit customers can configure auto-provisioning solutions for as much as three applications through a supported list.

G-Suite admins will also be able to use the RingCentral administrative console to automatically assign RingCentral phone numbers to new users. Additionally, everyone within the company with access to G-Suite and RingCentral will be able to see their colleagues as new contacts immediately. This process is available through all RingCentral tiers, and useable for brands in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and European countries - provided they have a valid G-Suite account.

Google Drive Solutions

G Suite business users and Apps Admins can now easily save call recordings, voicemails, TXTs, etc to Google Drive. You can even save Faxes to Google Drive, if you get one!

If you're a RingCentral customer who frequently uses G-Suite and Google solutions for productivity, then you'll also love the other recent integration from RingCentral. The "RingCentral for Google" service makes Gmail and Google Calendar a business hub for communications, where administrators can handle all their communication tasks seamlessly without having to leave their Google account.

"G Suite Admins should take into consideration that new communications files from RingCentral will reside in Google Drive. Apps Admins may need to adjust their Google Vault settings for retention on accounts with voice/SMS data."

With RingCentral for Google, businesses can make calls and send Business SMS messages directly through their Gmail account, increasing the number of people allowed to access a Google Hangout, and faxing files from Google Docs and Drive. RingCentral for Google is available naturally to all RingCentral Office customers as a Chrome browser extension from the Chrome web store.

G Suite Admins should take into consideration that new communications files from Ringcentral can and will reside in Drive. You may need to adjust your Google Vault settings for retention on accounts saving voice data.

All businesses need to take advantage of Ringcentral for Google

A valid Google account

A Device, Windows, Mac, Chrome, Android, iOS, Applewatch, etc.

Supported browsers (Chrome 30 or later)

Additionally, the new Google Drive features mean that within RingCentral Service web, customers can now use their RingCentral archiver to automatically save text messages, voice recordings, faxes, and voicemails to Google Drive accounts. For enterprise customers, transcripts can also be included.

These new features will join other integration capabilities for RingCentral, including:

Click-to-dial and SMS features: Users can simply click on a phone number displayed within any page in a Google Chrome browser to make a phone call, or send an SMS to that number through the RingCentral for Chrome extension.

Google SSO and Login Support: G-Suite users can access their email credentials to log into RingCentral accounts for SAML-based SSO, offering a unified experience across their mobile, desktop, and web-based platforms.

Integrated softphone: Within Google Calendar and Gmail inbox, businesses can access a RingCentral for Desktop softphone with a range of fantastic features.

Meetings: Business users can schedule and join audio conferences, RingCentral meetings and Google Hangouts through their Chromebook.

RingCentral and Using Google as The Single Sign-on Authority

The latest RingCentral G-Suite integrations have come as part of a focus that the brand has introduced, to use Google as their Single Sign-on Authority. By using the "Security Assertion Markup Language", or SAML, users can access enterprise cloud applications using their G-Suite credentials via Single Sign-on features. The identity and access management service provided by RingCentral and Google means that administrators can easily manage all cloud applications and users.

Today's admins will not have to worry about managing individual passwords and user IDs tied to individual cloud applications for each user. In other words, IAM services give users a unified solution for signing onto all their necessary enterprise cloud services.

The RingCentral "Single Sign-On" service provided through Google and G-Suite makes use of the security of a customer's network to provide their users with a safe and reliable way to log into RingCentral automatically. Users simply need to use their company network credentials to enter RingCentral, which saves them from having to remember another collection of usernames and passwords. This also reduces the administrative time a team spends on password recovery processes.

RingCentral Single Sign-On is one of the simplest new solutions for companies who want to streamline their workforce. It's quick and straightforward to set up, and offers a range of benefits including:

The ability to encourage employees to adopt more workplace tools with less effort.

The ease of allowing users to log in with a single set of validated credentials, so that they can access multiple tools and work applications. Administrators and users no longer have to worry about remembering or distributing several passwords and usernames.

The convenience of being able to access an automatic login feature, reducing friction for workers and enhancing the overall user experience for the modern workforce when adopting work applications.

The efficiency that comes with reducing the IT team administrative overhead among companies, usually associated with managing password recovery.

The security of a centralized point for authentication used with all team members, providing better peace of mind, and limiting the phishing potential for any given network.

RingCentral for Google is like An Apps Admin getting Peanut Butter in their Chocolate

Apps Admins - Find the Time to set up SSO and Auto Provisioning with G Suite Business

Using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), a user can use their G Suite credentials to sign in to enterprise cloud applications via Single Sign-On(SSO). By now many of your users are already on a lot of these services, like Salesforce and RingCentral so you may think it's going to be too much trouble to rein in these accounts.

It's important to take control of all of your company's business apps sooner rather than later. By procrastinating the move to Google Identity Access Management you are exacerbating the problem and leaving critical data at risk.

The technical setup isn't difficult but the project will take some coordination with your users. Look back to your change management and migration notes or look to our Google Cloud Professional Services for assistance and turn-key Apps Admin projects.